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A Day in the Life of a SAHM: Bad Words

My two-year-old son is a parrot – you say something and he repeats it. Actually, not only does he repeat it right after you say it, but he stores it away and says it at the most inopportune time. Ahh, the joy of toddlers…

Just to get things straight, my husband and I by no means walk around the house spewing “bad” words. Have we let them slip sometimes in front of him? Yes, unfortunately, we have. It’s the most frustrating thing when we’ve told him a million times not to touch outlets and he’ll do it a million times more; we say a bad word once and he remembers that forever.

As my son gets older and more outspoken we are more and more careful about what we say around him, as it is likely to be repeated. Rather than say a bad word, my husband and I will now say a variation of a “bad” word like darn, shoot, or something along those lines. Of course, my son doesn’t parrot those words like the few true “bad” words he’s heard.

There are also other “bad” words that aren’t allowed at our house. These are words like stupid, shut-up, or any name calling. These words, we believe, are either rude or mean if spoken to another person, so they are a no-no. We figure if we instill these rules at young ages they will stick and become habits, hopefully.

Sometimes I think to myself that words are just words, right? So, why not let our children say these words, even if they’re “bad” words, as long as they are used only in exclamation and not towards another person? But, I recognize that there’s something instilled in me that says it’s not okay for a child to say these words, even in exclamation. If they use these words when they’re older and all grown up, that’s fine, as it is beyond our control. But while they’re our children in our house, they’ll follow our rules of respecting others. So, it’s too bad, I guess they’ll just have to be nice, well-spoken and well-mannered children!

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Posted by momof2babes on Friday, January 25th, 2008 at 10:13 am and is filed under Parenting, Toddlers.
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One Response to “A Day in the Life of a SAHM: Bad Words”

and I don’t know what it is with movies today, it seems everybody’s just assumed there is a higher tolerance for cuss words in movies… they even include kids in the scenes where cuss words or sex euphemisms are said…